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2010-09-04

TOTeM -- Tales of Things and Electronic Memory

Ask anybody about the most meaningful object he owns, and you’re sure to get a story — this old trunk belonged to Grandpa, we bought that tacky coffee mug on our honeymoon, and so on. The relationship between the possessions we value and the narratives behind them is unmistakable. Current technologies of connection, and enterprises that take advantage of them, surface this idea in new ways — but they also suggest the many different kinds of stories, information and data that objects can, or will, tell us.

The TOTeM project is funded through a £1.39 million research grant from the EPSRC to explore social memory in the emerging culture of the Internet of Things. This term is used to describe the increasingly popular use of tagging technologies to track physical objects in the real world.

It’s a simple idea but one that suddenly makes secondhand goods all the more exciting. Imagine selling an old keepsake that had an interesting story tied to it. The buyer would find the QR code and upon scanning it with their phone or via webcam on the website would be presented with your online story via the Tales of Things website.

In computing, the term Internet of Things (also known as the Internet of Objects) refers to the networked interconnection of everyday objects.[1] It is generally viewed as a self-configuringwireless network of sensors whose purpose would be to interconnect all things.[1] The concept is attributed to the original Auto-ID Center, founded in 1999 and based at the time in MIT[2][3].
The idea is as simple as its application is difficult. If all cans, books, shoes or parts of cars are equipped with minuscule identifying devices, daily life on our planet will undergo a transformation. Things like running out of stock or wasted products will no longer exist as we will know exactly what is being consumed on the other side of the globe. Theft will be a thing of the past as we will know where a product is at all times. The same applies to parcels lost in the post.
If all objects of daily life, from yoghurt to an airplane, are equipped with radio tags, they can be identified and managed by computers in the same way humans can.[4][5] The next generation of Internet applications (IPv6 protocol) would be able to identify more objects than IPv4, which is currently in use. This system would therefore be able to instantaneously identify any kind of object.[6]